South African builder Southern Wind is hard at work on the third hull of the SW102, a raised-salon version of this sailing-yacht line. This yacht will have a slightly longer hull (it is expected to finish at 104 feet/31.7 meters), in part to make room for a garage capable of holding a 13-foot (4-meter) tender.

The International SeaKeeper Society (ISKS) will hold its annual Bal de la Mer gala event in San Francisco this year, the first in 15 years hosted outside of Monaco. In another first, the ISKS has chosen to honor a group instead of an individual. The Sargasso Sea Alliance (SSA) will be recognized for its work preserving the oceans.

One watcher called it “Iron Chef on the water.” There’s no doubt competition was fierce during the Newport Charter Yacht Show’s Culinary Competition. Chefs were split into two classes—Grande, for yachts 100 feet and larger, and Premier, for yachts smaller than 100 feet. Participating yachts could also enter the show’s first tablescaping competition.

Built in Sanlorenzo’s Massa Carrara shipyard, the 151-foot (46-meter) Starling launched this past summer. The fifth hull in the 46 Steel line, Starling is a five-deck steel displacement yacht with an aluminum superstructure and a 3,500-nautical-mile range.

Penned by Guido de Groot Design and Ginton Naval Architects, the first hull of Mulder’s 75 Wheelhouse series has launched from the builder’s new shipyard in Zoeterwoude-Rijndijk, the Netherlands. Featuring an interior by Kitty van der Kamp Design, this 76-footer (23.1-meter) can accommodate 10 guests in four staterooms and a 215-square-foot (20-square-meter) master suite.

The first-ever yacht from Gentech, the Soraya 46, relocated to the company’s Antalya, Turkey, production space for finalization over the summer. Built to RINA and MCA classifications, the 46 can carry 10 passengers and nine crew.

More than 400 guests attended the May christening of Amels’ Limited Edition 180 at the shipyard in Vlissingen, the Netherlands. The yacht, now known as Engelberg, has an exterior design by Tim Heywood, naval architecture by the in-house team at Amels and interior design by Enea Landscape Architecture.

Hakvoort’s latest launch will make an appearance in Monaco after her maiden voyage through Norway, according to the yard. Apostrophe is the product of Hakvoort and U.K.-based Reymond Langton Design Ltd., both outside and in.

Moonen recently relaunched the seventh hull in the Moonen 84 line after a successful five-month refit at the yard. Etoile d’Azur, a René van der Velden design originally delivered in 2007 and still in the hands of her original owners, now boasts an extended flybridge.

Clear Blue Hawaii began developing kayaks in 2002. There are now three basic models that cover a spectrum of uses. One of those, the Napali, is innovative not only for its clear urethane construction, carbon Kevlar frame and light weight (approximately 26 pounds), but for its collapsible design.

A new 164-foot (50-meter) custom yacht launched from Heesen’s Oss shipyard this summer. Crazy Me bears distinctive exterior lines designed by Gary Grant and a contemporary interior by Cristiano Gatto, but the yard places a lot of credit for the design concept with the yacht’s owner.

It was the last week of September and the time of the southwest monsoon in the Indian Ocean. By leaving then, we planned to encounter southeasterlies south of the Maldives and the equator, but the Indian Ocean threw itself against us in heaps. Barbara, the ship’s cook, found flying fish on the flybridge, more than 20 feet up.

Ferretti engineers certainly started right by establishing clear design goals for the 960 from the very beginning. The most basic one was to create a yacht small enough to be classed by CE as a pleasure boat, meaning a crew would not be mandated, yet offer features that would allow it to compete with vessels larger than 100 feet.

Vicem is justifiably famous for its wood expertise, both in its cold-molded hulls and its superb interior joinery and varnish work. Although the hull of the Vulcan 46m is modern composite fiberglass-reinforced plastic (FRP), Vicem wanted her to look and feel like a traditional wooden boat inside.

Stella Maris represents a dramatic evolution of VSY’s two previous launches, Candyscape II and Roma. An updated version of these 62-meter (203-foot) platforms, the 2,114-gross-ton, 72-meter (237-foot) Stella Maris, designed by Espen Øino, offers more than twice the volume, along with some unconventional exterior styling and interior layout solutions.

“Yar: Easy to handle and moves along smoothly.” This witty archaic word to describe a “proper yacht” in “The Philadelphia Story”—the memorable Hollywood film from 1940—is a fitting one-word designation for the 123-foot (37.3-meter) cutter-rigged sloop Pumula from Royal Huisman.

Vertigo (with that capital “V”) is a 220-foot (67.2-meter) ketch that was built right here in Auckland by Alloy Yachts, which had just launched Encore, a smaller, much more traditional 144-footer (43.9-meter) that was docked at the Viaduct Events Centre for her final fit-out and commissioning.

Designers and builders of sailing yachts greater than 100 feet (30.4 meters) are being tasked with creating vessels that not only are beautiful, comfortable and safe, but also achieve a high level of sailing performance. The proliferation of international superyacht regattas has upped the ante for owners who not only like their yachts luxurious, but also like to best their competition on the race course.

In today’s market, it is crucial to stand out from the crowd, and the Pearl 75, from the drawing board of British naval architecht Bill Dixon, is fitted with pod drives—in this case, a pair of ZF 4000-series units coupled to 1,250-horsepower MTU diesels. Along with the computer-controlled maneuverability that this system offers, it also allows the engines to be mounted well aft in the hull to make space for exceptionally roomy accommodations belowdecks.

So how about the 72 GLX? She’s a little bit boxy at first glance. But that aesthetic tradeoff manifests itself in other areas that, for my money, more than makes up for anything lost. Like, for instance, the 6-foot 10-inch headroom that pervades the main deck.

Reading a yacht insurance policy is often like reading a novel in Sanskrit: just about impossible. But understanding your yacht’s insurance policy is critical to protecting yourself from breaching the insurance policy and being denied coverage.